Madge Oberholtzer

Madge Oberholtzer (10 November 1896-14 April 1925) was an American teacher and adult literacy campaign worker who was raped and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan Indiana Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson, leading to the fall of the KKK in the Midwest.

Biography
Madge Oberholtzer was born on 10 November 1896 in Indianapolis, Indiana to a family of German-Americans. She became a schoolteacher, and she first met D.C. Stephenson when she worked as a secretary to him. They had a relationship before later breaking up, but on 15 March 1925 she was kidnapped by Stephenson and raped as well as bitten and assaulted. Oberholtzer took poison, and Stephenson and his Ku Klux Klan accomplices abandoned her, believing that she would die. However, she was conscious when police arrived, and she gave them a statement about the event. She died on 14 April 1925 from an infection from the bites as well as the mercury poison-induced kidney failure. Her rape and murder led to the KKK losing its facade of legitimacy, and they lost 5,000,000 members in 1925 as well as their stronghold of the Midwest.